Young, Brown, Love (Part II: The Comic Tragedy)

AND, if you didn’t read (and look at the photos) of my
January 6th post, “Flying My Way”(clickable link), please STOP and take a look—the comic
tragedy of this blog also needs that post’s history.

At the END (pun intended) of Part I of
this story, I left off with those young Brown Pelican’s having progressed
from the gentle love of bill caressing to the--well you know--this:

Now as mentioned, these two Brown Pelican’s completely
ignored me, with my front-seat viewing, so involved were they with each other. AND it was during their public display of affection that I looked away for a bit, to shoot the photos of
the teenage Herring Gull, “Flying My Way”.

In fact, if you look closely at that post’s photos, you’ll
note the teenage Herring Gull goes from flying over, to looking downward as if
spotting something of interest:

I couldn’t believe it!
This feathered teenager (the Herring) sighted what this ol’ human was staring
at: Young, Brown, Love!

The Herring quickly and quietly dropped and landed on
an outcropping of “rock”, even closer to the two young lovers than I. And yes, I kid you not, in this next photo of the Herring Gull, he is looking up at the two Brown Pelican’s as they continued
the “billing” and gentle caressing of pre-mating behavior.

The look of a teenager watching some serious public
display of affection:

The beauty of these young Brown lovers held the
Herring and me transfixed!

AND, just
like me, the Herring was absolutely still and quiet—and the lovers progressed
to the “position” of the first photo, with the female Brown giving more than a
subtle invitation to the male Brown.

And why did I leave you with this “position” in Part I? Why was the female waiting, and
waiting?

Well, just like that—the quiet solitude that the two
Brown Pelicans thought was theirs was tragically interrupted by a convoy of
White Pelicans, coming in to check out the “goings on” of the Browns.

And so begins the comic tragedy of this tale. The next photo will share the close proximity
of the Herring Gull to the Browns, as the White Pelicans approach.

AND it also shows the blurry image of the young male
Brown Pelican, suddenly distracted, looking in the direction of the incoming
White Pelicans. This was the first “look
away” by the male Brown, forgetting at that moment the “position” of his female
love.

BUT even MORE telling as a comic tragedy, look at what
the first White Pelican is “eyeing”—and how the teenage Herring Gull takes note
of this look:

And so all quiet was ended by THAT White Pelican coveting
thy neighbor’s “rock” rather than showing any interest in the young, brown,
love! The White Pelican flapped a threat
to the Herring, and the Herring flew away:

And what did this White Pelican do? You betcha—the White made a rather public
statement of claiming the perch on the “rock”, complete with one of those
male-oriented “scratches”:

Now can I remind you of the female’s position (with her
backside in the direction of this raucous side show)? Well, bless her heart, she finally had ENOUGH
of waiting! And so she moved back into an “upright” position, but not leaving
her love.

And I swear—I mean I SWEAR—the young Brown male looked
over at me with that look of “Oh god, I’m feeling nervous; I think I blew it; what
should I do now?”

Well, I knew to keep my mouth shut! The female Brown took what I’ll call “appropriate”
action. She let out that familiar LOUD squawk
of an exasperated female, feathered or human kind (we all know the sound of an
exasperated female, not happy with WHATEVER is making her NOT happy).

The squawk caused the White Pelicans to fly away with
no subtle procrastination—I was so fixated on the female Brown that I missed
their departing flight with my lens!

And then comes the tragic climax! The young female Brown punctuated her
exasperated squawk by taking her left wing and giving her young male lover a
good whack to his front side. I’m not
sure how hard her left hook actually landed, but it put him in his place: and he too departed!

This photo caught the end of her verbalization and her left hook:

And so the story ends as it started in Part 1. A beautiful young female Brown Pelican filled my
lens. Only this time, she really was
alone.

I quietly did what we women-folk
do: I shared a few empathizing and
supportive words.

And then I too took my leave.

I have the feeling that these two young
lovers were not separated too long. And
one day, they may have quite a story of young love, for their grandchildren.